Calanis
Calanis, the capital city of the Shining Land of Shahalesti, is older than the human nations that surround it, just as the ruling line of Shahalesti is older than the human species. As a city, Calanis is as far removed in style from the human cities as the neighboring species are different from the elves that rule the Shining Land of Shahalesti.
There is no permanent city such as we know. There are few permanent buildings. Instead, along the carefully planned and garden-bordered roads are spaces where the nomadic elven folk of the Shining Land of Shahalesti may come and go. There is a designated space for the market, but the merchants migrate in a procession that parallels that of the seasons. A score of tents may spring up overnight and their inhabitants swell the population of Calanis for a week or a month, only to disappear without a trace when their visiting and trading is over. Calanis is an ever-changing city of tents populated by the vigorous outdoor-dwelling folk of the nation. The homes of the ruling family and the companions that are allowed to stay year-round with them are not at all like human castles and halls. Instead, their dwellings center around great trees, living still, their trunks and branches patiently trained over scores of years to provide a framework for the building. This living structure is then draped with a fabric woven of tree-bark fibers and reinforced with a latticework. Thus the walls can take on the gently curving shapes of a tulip bud or the dome of an egg. A clay coating is spread over the fabric layer and this in turn is painted with a shiny resinous paint in the bright hues the elven folk enjoy. some are decorated with fanciful creatures or patterns but most are left simple. Purples and yellows predominate, so that to come upon the city growing in the shade of the great trees is like coming upon a patch of crocus in springtime.
About these homes and at the intersections of the roads in this nomadic ''city'' are the gardens. Each is unique. One may center around an unusually shaped stump or an arrangemerrt of stones or a graceful bit of wood. They may contain fragrant herbs or bright flowers or any combination of plants. One notable one has at its heart a bubbling spring of steaming water. Here grow plants with fleshy leaves and exotically scented flowers, denizens of somie foreign clime brought here to delight the elven dwellers with their mystery. Often, visiitors leavve gifts in the gardens when they depart, a wooden carving or a graceful pot or perhaps merely a colorful arrangement of pebbles. The gardens are tended by and belong to all.
At Calanis can also be found hot springs, some of water that can scald flesh, others merely a gently bubbling warmth. These have been modified, both as public baths and as a source of heat in some of the smaller dwellings. In every building, in every garden, at every turn the visitor finds the austere beauty and simplicity of color and form that are the elven ideal. The overall impression that one carries away is of tranquillity and joy in the natural world. The chosen simplicity of life there may lead the visitor to question his own choice in life.
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City
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Characters in Location
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